The Bishop and the Missing L Train

International best-selling author Andrew M. Greeley is hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "a fascinating novelist" with a rare, possibly unmatched point of view. In this baffling mystery, the unpopular and incompetent Bishop Gus Quill is assigned to the Archdiocese of Chicago despite loud protests. When he disappears while riding the L Train, it falls to Bishop Blackie Ryan to find him.

An Obvious Fact

In the midst of the largest motorcycle rally in the world, a young biker is run off the road and ends up in critical condition. When Sheriff Walt Longmire and his good friend, Henry Standing Bear, are called to Hulett, Wyoming - the nearest town to America's first national monument, Devils Tower - to investigate, things start getting complicated.

Crowned and Dangerous

Nothing is simple when you're 35th in line for the British crown, least of all marriage. But with love on their side and plans to elope, Lady Georgiana Rannoch and her beau, Darcy O'Mara, hope to bypass a few royal rules....

The Search for Maggie Ward

It is the summer after the Big War and, while most veterans are racing back to setup housekeeping, Jerry Keenan finds himself unattached, unable to settle down, and suffering nightmares from his wartime experiences. Enter Andrea King, an irresistible 18-year-old war widow. But then, she disappears....

Every Dead Thing

Former NYPD detective Charlie "Bird" Parker is on the verge of madness. Tortured by the unsolved slayings of his wife and young daughter, he is a man consumed by guilt, regret, and the desire for revenge. When his former partner asks him to track down a missing girl, Parker finds himself drawn into a world beyond his imagining - one where 30 year old killings remain shrouded in fear and lies, a world where the ghosts of the dead torment the living....

Contract with an Angel

On a flight to Chicago, millionaire media mogul Raymond Neenan receives this bit of angelic advice and finds himself staring death, and the eternal hereafter, in the face. He soon finds that making amends in his personal and business life is no easy task. In his effort to get to the top, he's damaged a lot of lives, including his own. He's hated and feared by his parents, his ex-wife, his children, and practically everyone he's ever met.

Friday the Rabbi Slept Late: A Rabbi Small Mystery, Book 1

Young and unassuming Rabbi David Small sorts through puzzling pieces of mysteries with logic straight from the Talmud. In Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, a shocking discovery on the temple grounds threatens to ruin both the diligent rabbi and the entire Jewish community at Barnard’s Crossing. Unaware that his congregation is grumbling about his rumpled appearance and absent-minded manner, Rabbi Small spends long hours poring over scholarly books.

The Highwayman: A Longmire Story

When Wyoming highway patrolman Rosey Wayman is transferred to the beautiful and imposing landscape of the Wind River Canyon, an area the troopers refer to as no-man's-land because of the lack of radio communication, she starts receiving "officer needs assistance" calls. The problem? They're coming from Bobby Womack, a legendary Arapaho patrolman who met a fiery death in the canyon almost a half century ago.

The Black Widow

Gabriel Allon, the art restorer, spy, and assassin described as the most compelling fictional creation "since Ian Fleming put down his martini and invented James Bond" (Rocky Mountain News), is poised to become the chief of Israel's secret intelligence service. But on the eve of his promotion, events conspire to lure him into the field for one final operation. ISIS has detonated a massive bomb in the Marais district of Paris, and a desperate French government wants Gabriel to eliminate the man responsible before he can strike again.

Escape Clause: A Virgil Flowers Novel, Book 9

The first storm comes from, of all places, the Minnesota zoo. Two large and very rare Amur tigers have vanished from their cage, and authorities are worried sick that they've been stolen for their body parts. Traditional Chinese medicine prizes those parts for home remedies, and people will do extreme things to get what they need. Some of them are a great deal more extreme than others - as Virgil is about to find out.

A Rather Lovely Inheritance

This is your life Penny Nichols...Penny Nichols is a historical researcher working on a big-budget film in the south of France when she gets an urgent call. Her Aunt Penelope has just died, and Penny's presence is required in London for the reading of the will. With only a slim recollection of her eccentric aunt, Penny is astonished to learn that not only is she the bona fide heiress - but she's also been invited to put her research skills to work.

The Black Echo: Harry Bosch Series, Book 1

For LAPD homicide cop Harry Bosch - hero, maverick, nighthawk - the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal. The dead man, Billy Meadows, was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who fought side by side with him in a nightmare underground war that brought them to the depths of hell.

Booked to Die

The murder of a harmless book dealer draws Denver homicide detective Cliff Janeway into an extraordinary quest. Suddenly his sources become victims, and he begins to understand that rare editions can cost lives.

The Innocence of Father Brown

Father Brown was a character created by G.K Chesterton and draws inspiration from Arthur Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. While Sherlock Holmes' detective career relies on his logic and deduction, Father Brown relies on sympathy and intuition to solve mysteries and crime. The Innocence of Father Brown is a collection of 12 stories that have Father Brown doing what he does best; being a detective.

Mrs Queen Takes the Train

An absolute delight of a debut novel by William Kuhn - author of Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books - Mrs Queen Takes the Train wittily imagines the kerfuffle that transpires when a bored Queen Elizabeth strolls out of the palace in search of a little fun, leaving behind a desperate team of courtiers who must find the missing Windsor before a national scandal erupts.

The Medusa Amulet

Benvenuto Cellini, master artisan of Renaissance Italy, once crafted a beautiful amulet prized for its unimaginable power - and untold menace. Now the quest to recover this legendary artifact depends upon one man: David Franco, a brilliant but skeptical young scholar at Chicago's world-renowned Newberry Library.

Publisher's Summary

With over 15 million copies of his books in print, Father Andrew M. Greeley has an unmatched flair for writing entertaining fiction that offers wry observations about religious and secular life. His popular novels featuring Bishop Blackie Ryan offer delightful locked-room mysteries set against the intricate politics of the Catholic church.

Bishop Blackie has no desire to leave the friendly confines of his Chicago neighborhood to traipse around Paris searching for Fr're Jean-Claude, a popular priest who has inexplicably vanished while filming a television show. But when his Archbishop boss says, "See to it," Blackie can hardly refuse. As he sifts through a pile of suspects that includes everyone from church leaders to television executives, Blackie begins to wonder whether the reason no one can find Jean-Claude is because Jean-Claude doesn't want to be found.

George Guidall's entertaining narration perfectly captures the sharp wit and worldly wisdom of Bishop Blackie as he puzzles his way through this beguiling mystery.

Bishop Blackie is back with his usual gentle humour and Catholic milieu but with a more interesting than usual setting (Paris) and a more predictable than usual mystery. But I don't download Greeley for edge-of-seat action and suspense, just for an relaxing airport or waiting room listen, one without vivid violence or sex, written well enough to hold attention (but not riveting enough to miss a flight call). This novel suited that purpose. Excellent narration makes up for the pedestrian pace. I give it an extra star for Greeley's acknowledgement of the feminine face of God and the charming creation tale tacked on the end.

What made the experience of listening to The Bishop and the Beggar Girl of St. Germaine the most enjoyable?

This was a change from the action packed books I was used to. The overall pace of the story is slow so watch for that if you are used to a fast pace story. this is the perfect book to listen to while you are doing tasks that require your attention. Also there is little reason to worry about listing to the story through speakers. The story is very clean and makes me think of a book my grandmother would have read. There are only a few parts that might cause some people to turn their heads.

Any additional comments?

Over all it was a great book to listen to while you are cooking or staking boxes at work.

There are legitimate criticism to be made of Greeley's fiction -- especially that it can, at times, be overly simplistic -- but for me that's one of his charms. He deals with what are in many ways quite sophisticated theological concepts, but he just focuses on what matters, places them in everyday contexts that non-theologians can relate to, and in so doing communicates deep truths. I just wish more of his unabridged Blackie Ryan stories were available on Audible (c'mon Audible -- step it up!). ;)